Erasmus + Action 2

The students of Kozminski University were asked this question in December 2014. Amid witty answers appeared: "a..", very meaningful "I don't know" and European Union.

This is the well-known fact that European Union joins 28 countries, but the mentioned countries are also connected by the special project called "Market Basket 2.0", realized within the framework of Erasmus + programme by five Higher Education Institutions: Kozminski University, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Business Academy Aarhus, University of Zagreb, University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna and Technology Park in Varazdin.The main objective of this project is to enable students and lecturers to work in international, virtual teams. Thanks to the project students who could not take advantage of Erasmus exchange programme will now have an opportunity to develop skills on intercultural communication and teamwork, and also digital and research skills, etc. Lecturers on the other hand will benefit from this project by sharing experience and knowledge, preparing materials for students together with lecturers from other European Countries.

I invite all interested parties to visit the official project website www.beezr.eu where more information about the project can be found.

The five Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in this project, namely: Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego, Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Fakultet Organizacije i Informatike, Fachhochschule des BFI Wien Gesellschaft M.B.H, Erhvervsakademi Aarhus, Technoloski Park Varazdin Doo Za Inkubaciju Inovativnih Technologijskihpoduceza, have large part-time students population. These part-time students, and many full-time students as well, have no or limited opportunity to travel for their study programme or to apply for an Erasmus exchange programme. They still need to develop skills like intercultural communication, digital competences, teamwork and research skills in an international setting to enhance their employability in todays globalised working environment. Professionals who can work effectively in international, virtual, multi-disciplinary teams are increasingly demanded by employers.

The first phase of the project will be the development of an implementation pack with training materials and necessary resources and an Online Platform (www.beezr.eu) as an Open Educational Resource. The second phase will be the testing, evaluation and adjusting of the implementation pack and platform through concrete pilots. During the testing phase the MAB 2.0 will be open to students from various Bachelor programmes of the participating HEIs, e.g. Marketing, Project Management, IT, Multi-media , Communication Management and many other programmes. Partners outside the consortium can join the pilots which will stimulate further dissemination.

Other dissemination activities during the project will be training sessions for teaching staff, multiplier events for non participants, presentations at international conferences and publications in educational magazines.

The final result of the MAB 2.0 project will be a well-documented and tested educational model whereby students collaborate in virtual, international, multi-disciplinary teams on research projects commissioned by actual SMEs.